


It grieves me to say it

by reylotrash711



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Love Actually Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Rey (Star Wars), F/M, Inspired by Love Actually, Love Confessions, Manager Rey, No Pregnancy, No Smut, Older Reylo, rockstar ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:46:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25633030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylotrash711/pseuds/reylotrash711
Summary: She's worked for him for ten years, bringing him out of the ashes and back into the blinding lights of stardom. He is famous and she thinks more than one girl will throw herself at him now that he has Christmas No1. But maybe, just maybe, this Christmas love is all around and he will see her as more than his manager and best friend...
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Kylo Ren
Comments: 15
Kudos: 53
Collections: Let's Go to the Movies - Reylo Readers & Writers Prompt Exchange





	It grieves me to say it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenOfCarrotFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfCarrotFlowers/gifts).



> Inspired by the prompt: 
> 
> The "Billy Mack and Joe" storyline from Love, Actually. Kylo is Billy Mack (the burned-out rock star) and Rey is Joe (his long-term, put-upon, best friend of a manager) - ends with kisses of course! "And... and much as it grieves me to say it, it... it might be that the people I love is, in fact... you."
> 
> Love Actually is one of my favourite films so I had a blast writing this. Thank you to [Cecilia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciliasheplin/works) for the beta!

Rey sat in her apartment, eyes trained on the TV as she sipped her beer. He’d done it. He’d fucking done it. Kylo Ren returns with a bang, nabbing top of the charts with his new single _Christmas is all around_ . It was a shit song, maybe that is why it did so well. She glared at the TV, more specifically at the half-dressed woman dancing seductively around Ben as he sang. Coming to think of it, maybe _that_ is the reason the song was number one.

She laughed bitterly, placing her empty beer on the coffee table and cracking open a second one. Her work was done, she had risen Kylo Ren from the ashes, sent him back into the limelight just as he paid her to. As she sat on her sofa, listening to the appalling song on a loop he was probably necking on with a young chick at Elton John’s Christmas party that he had been very fortunately invited to. The thought made her glare at the TV screen. For so long it had just been the two of them, struggling to produce any music that may make people remember the name Kylo Ren, the famous rockstar. 

Ben had hired her a couple of years after she graduated from university. She was young and ready for any challenges she may face in her chosen career, he was a thirty-year-old rockstar who was slowly going downhill. It was meant to be a short job, trying to get him back into the charts, yet here she was ten years later happier than ever to be working with her best friend. Most of her friends who were her age were married with children, always discussing things like baby products and breast milk formula on the group chat, topics Rey couldn’t feel more disconnected from if she tried. The whole marriage and babies thing had never interested her. During her time as Ben’s manager, she had been on the occasional dates, a couple of boyfriends and girlfriends here and there throughout the beginning but after a while, she got sick of all the drama. She’d much rather spend her time with Ben and his record collection on a Friday night. He’d had a few relationships too but they had never led anywhere, the press would eat up everything and after a while, people didn’t take much interest in the burned-out rockstar anymore.

Of course, that had all certainly changed tonight. 

With a tired sigh, Rey got up from the sofa, brushing the Dorito crumbs off her pyjama bottoms. She collected up the three beer bottles she had been sipping throughout the evening, the Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough and the empty bag of Doritos, carrying them into the kitchen and trying to make sense of the mess that was her apartment. Her tiny and quite sad little Christmas tree sat in the corner of the room, the same one she had had for five years now. She hadn’t really bothered with many decorations this year, she lived alone, it wasn’t like she would be spending Christmas with anyone. Ben would probably still be at the party when the morning came, maybe he would turn up with a hang-over around midday because he had nothing better to do. Maybe he would come as a friend instead of her boss. 

For the first time in a while, Ben had given her a holiday. She should be grateful, finally having some time off to relax. Instead, she felt lost, alone even. Ben was certainly a very demanding boss, his grumpy nature often pushed onto her with his cold remarks and extensive list of things for her to do. Sometimes she felt more like an assistant than a manager. When she first started working for him he treated her as such, asking her to do things such as pick up his dry cleaning or buy him a McDonald’s at eleven o’clock at night. After the first year of being at his beck and call, Rey put her foot down. Now they were more like best friends who helped each other out than people who worked together. 

Back in his days of fame, Ben had been widely recognised as a bit of a player, making it into most of the gossip magazines and tabloids. When she first met him, Rey had presumed all those rumours to be true. They weren’t. He saw it as something that took too much effort. That didn’t stop him from having a big mouth and teasing the media though. Although there was no doubt in her mind that he would be having some fun tonight, she had seen some of the girls who went to those parties. Rey stopped in the front of the mirror that was hanging on the wall in her hallway. She liked to think she still had it. Thirty-five years old and she still looked pretty good, she didn’t have the hair or face that the young woman in the music video had, but she still liked to think she looked quite pretty. For years now she had hoped Ben would think the same, that he would one day look at her as more than his manager or friend. 

Shaking her head, Rey sighed and moved back to the couch. Just as she had pulled her blanket over and found herself in a reasonably comfortable position, the doorbell rang.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She grumbled, throwing back her blanket and muting the TV (did she really want anyone knowing she was listening to that festering turd of a record), moving to answer the door. The doorbell rang once again and Rey gritted her teeth, “Alright, I’m coming!” she said, angry with the impatient asshole on the other side of the door. Throwing it open she was ready to snap at the person, only to see it was Ben standing opposite her, leaning against the doorway. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, “You’re meant to be at Elton John’s.”

Ben looked slightly puzzled, “Well I was for a minute, but then I had an epiphany.” 

Rey sighed, shaking her head, “Come on then, let’s hear it.” she said, walking back into the living room as Ben followed, closing the door behind him. She sat down on the sofa, waiting for whatever tale Ben had this time. He stood in front of her, pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table. 

“Well? What was this epiphany?” Rey asked. 

He paused, turning to her, “It was about Christmas.” he began. 

She cut across him, “You realised it was all around?” she said with a smirk, chuckling slightly. 

He shook his head, his expression was far more hesitant and nervous than Rey was used to, “Well, no. I realised that Christmas is a time for spending time with the people who are most important to you, the people you love.”

Rey nodded slowly, “Well, yeah, that’s kind of the idea.” She couldn’t quite understand what her best friend was getting at as he moved around the room, looking at all of his framed album covers she had printed and put up. 

“Yeah. Anyway, then I realised that as chance and major cock-up would have it, here I am, mid-forties and without knowing I have gone and spent the last ten years spending all my time with an employee.” he continued, gesturing to her. Rey froze, slowly beginning to understand what Ben was getting at. Coming to the sofa, he took a seat next to her, dangerously close in a way that made Rey’s heart pound furiously in her chest. “And as much as it grieves me to say it, it… it might be that the people I love is, in fact… you.” 

Rey’s breath caught in her throat as Ben looked at her with a gaze that seemed to look straight into her soul. Her hands felt clammy as they rested on her knees and she was fairly certain that she would either pass out or start crying. She got to her feet, turning away from him and running her hand through her hair as she took a nervous breath, “Well, this is a surprise.” she said slowly. Ben stood, hesitantly approaching her. “Ben I-”

“I know, I know.” He said, raising his hands as if in defeat as he came to stand a mere metre from her, “You’re going to say it’s a terrible terrible mistake, sunshine.” she blushed slightly at the use of her favourite nickname he had for her, “But you turn out to be the fucking love of my life.”

She was dreaming. She was definitely dreaming. 

Ben sighed, looking down at his feet, “Turn me away now. I’ll make sure you get a good job, everyone will want to know the manager who transformed this git back into a superstar. I know you think I’m mad, crazy even. After all who would want to-”

Before Ben could finish his sentence, Rey cupped his cheeks and drew him to her, pressing her lips to his. At first, she could tell Ben was shocked, but after a few moments of confusion, his arms wrapped around her waist and he returned her kiss. 

Suddenly Ben pulled away, “Wait a minute, what?” he asked. 

A smile broke across Rey’s face and she stroked his cheek gently, “I think you’re my person too.” she whispered, “I love you, Ben Solo.” 

This time, a real smile came across Ben’s face, the one he so ardently adored, the one that she knew belonged only to her. Leaning forward, Ben kissed her again, caressing her lips with his own in a way that made her head spin and her heart practically scream. Ben Solo was kissing her! The man she loved, the man she _had_ loved for god knows how long was kissing her. And oh, it felt so so wonderful to be in his arms. 

The kiss was everything she dreamt kissing Ben would be like. It was soft and gentle but at the same time passionate and hungry. Her hands reached up and found their way into his hair, tangling into it and tugging him closer to her. Ben groaned into the kiss, a sound that made heat bloom between her thighs. She opened up to him, allowing him to poke his tongue between her lips and deepen the kiss, drawing a surprised squeak from her when he lifted her into his arms. Her legs wrapped around his torso and she clung to him, kissing him desperately as his hands supported her arse. 

After a few moments, they broke the kiss, breathing heavily as they pulled away. They were silent, looking into each other’s eyes with a love neither of them had truly recognised until now. But as Ben held Rey in his arms, in the middle of her messy living room, Rey knew that she had seen that look a hundred times before, maybe even a thousand. 

“What now?” Ben asked. 

Rey shrugged, “We do whatever we want ,I guess.” her fingers moved across where his shirt neckline revealed his chest, she gave him a suggestive look, “ _Whatever_ we want.” 

Ben’s eyes widened and she bit her lip, worried that she had overstepped. She was quickly reassured when Ben surged forward, capturing her lips once again, “That sounds like a wonderful idea.” he said, walking in the direction of her bedroom, holding her close. Rey giggled, arms thrown around Ben’s shoulders as he kicked open the door before depositing her on the bed.

He crawled over her immediately, attacked her neck with kisses, moving up along her jaw before kissing her deeply. Rey felt like she was in heaven, every touch, every kiss was precious. How had it taken them so long to discover this? 

She moved to push his jacket off his shoulders, only for Ben to freeze and break the kiss. “Is something wrong?” she asked. 

Ben pulled back, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his iPhone SE (she had been mithering him to get an upgrade for ages and he hadn’t listened) “We need mood music!” Ben announced. 

Rey narrowed her eyes at him, preparing herself for whatever Ben was going to do next. 

To her dismay, _Christmas is all around_ began to fill the room.

“Noooo, Ben!” She protested, reaching up to grab his phone. Kneeling up on the bed, she pulled it from his grasp as he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into an embrace as she switched the song off. “I love you, Ben Solo, but that song is absolute shit.” 

“And yet you still helped me produce it,” he said teasingly. 

Rey chucked his phone onto the chair next to her bed, “Because, as I just said, I love you.” 

“I know.” Ben breathed, “I love you too.” He kissed her again and together they sank into the sheets, hands wandering across each other’s bodies and discarding clothes as they went. 

Love was certainly all around. And maybe, Rey thought, Christmas really was too...

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed please consider leaving comments and kudos!  
> Come say hi:
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/reylotrash711) [Tumblr](https://reylotrash711.tumblr.com/)


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